Though I had no concrete evidence, I suspected that box office revenues would be going up this weekend since there were tens of millions of people desperate to be entertained, looking for a good laugh after the grim events of last Tuesday. And there were a couple of major new film releases this weekend to satisfy anyone looking for a 2 hour respite from the bad news.

So it should be no surprise that Marvel’s “Doctor Strange” was number one again this weekend after its spectacular $85 million opening last week. Though it dropped some 49% from last weekend, it still pulled in $43 million, making its total so far at just over $153 million, which is amazing. Even more amazing is that it has already grossed $492.6 million worldwide in just two weeks. At this rate it’s very possible the film could hit close to a billion dollars worldwide. Obviously there’s something about “Strange” that truly appeals to audiences. Perhaps one of our readers who has seen the film could tell us what it is.

The Fox/Dreamworks animated film “Trolls”, which was number two last weekend, was number 2 again with $35 million, and over $94 million domestically total to date; worldwide it’s grossed $200 million. Coming in third place was the highly praised new sci-fi film “Arrival” which made $24 million; not bad for a film that cost under $50 million to make (which these days is considered to be a modestly budgeted film).

Universal’s even more modesty budgeted comedy, the $17 million “Almost Christmas”, did OK in 4th place, with $15.6 million; it was a smart move by the studio to open up the film earlier than usual for an Xmas film, so it should do solid business through the holiday season.

Meanwhile Tyler Perry’s “Boo! A Madea Halloween” dropped another 54% from last week, but with $70.4 million so far, that makes it the second highest grossing film in Perry’s career.

Mel Gibson’s WWII film “Hacksaw Ridge” saw a 29% drop from last weekend, which was the smallest dropoff of any film in the top ten, and has made over $32 million to date. But “Inferno” domestically has been a disaster, making only $31 million so far here in the U.S. But once again, thanks to overseas numbers, it’s a hit with $202 million worldwide so far.

Finally “Moonlight”, which is now being heavily advertised on television, is still holding up strong, expanding its release by another 93 screens to a total of 176 screens and weekend gross of $1.4 million, up 10% from last week, for a total of just under $4.8 million to date.